Aims

In its first part, course is focused on the evolution of the anti-semitic ideology in Europe in 19th century (since French revolution until the First World War). The objective is to show and discuss the changes in the ideology and mainly the displays of anti-semitism in the everyday life. The particularities of these displays are presented through the comparison o different European countries (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia, France). The second part of the course is focuse on the Holocaust – genocide of Jews, its origin, implementation and aftermath. The main objective is to analyze the changes in nazi policy towards Jews and the ways how he genocide was prepared and carried out. The different approaches of European countries to the „Jewish question“ during the Second World War are the other subject for analysing. Special attention is payed to the problems of Jewish resistence, punishing the perpetrators of genocide after the war and the attitude of non-Jewish population to the genocide.

Competences

Students gain the basic overview of the problematic, are able to explain the nature of anti-semitism and reason for its different displays in different European societies. Further they are able to explain causes of holocaust, distinguis the trends and differences in anti-Jewish policy of Germany and its allies, and put the holocaust in the context of 20th century history.

Time requirements:

2 hours (lecture)

ECTS credits

4

Semestr

winter

Requirements

written exam

Content

1) Tradition of Anti-Semitism in Middle-Age and Early Modern Europe
2) The Jewish Enlightenment, French Revolution and Jewish Emancipation
3) The Birth of Modern Anti-Semitism: the case of Germany
4) Anti-Jewish Violence in 19th century Europe: Russia in the comparative perspective
5) Anti-Semitism and Modern Politics: France and Austria-Hungary
6) Jewish Reactions on Anti-Semitism: Assimilation, Emigration, Zionism
7) Nazism and Anti-Semitism in 1920-1930’s
8) The Path to Genocide: Nazi Germany and Europe, 1939-1941
9) The War against the Jews: Nazi Germany and Europe, 1941-1945
10) In the shadow of death: Jews between the Ghettos and Death Camps
11) „We only followed the orders“: Perpetrators and their histories
12) „We did not know anything about it“: Bystanders and their histories
13) Epilogue: Anti-Semitism in Europe after the Holocaust

Literature

Henry Abramson, A Prayer for the Government: Ukrainians and Jews in Revolutionary Times, 1917-1920, Harvard 1999.

Eugene M. Avrutin – Harriet Murav, Jews in the East European Borderlands: Essays in Honor of John Doyle Klier, Academic Studies Press 2012.

Israel Bartal, The Jews of Eastern Europe, 1772-1881, University of Pennsylvania Press 2006.

Useful websites

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. The USHMM was opened in 1993 and provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust history. The USHMM’s collections contain more than 12,750 artifacts, 49 million pages of archival documents, 80,000 historical photographs, 200,000 registered survivors, 1,000 hours of archival footage, 84,000 library items, and 9,000 oral history testimonies. It also has teacher fellows in every state in the United States and has welcomed almost 400 university fellows from 26 countries since 1994. Researchers at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum have documented 42,500 ghettos and concentration camps erected by the Nazis throughout German-controlled areas of Europe from 1933 to 1945.

Yad Vashem. The International Institute for Holocaust Research, Jerusalem

Research and publications on the Shoah have always been high priorities of Yad Vashem since its official founding by the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament) in 1953. Due to the increase of international interest in the Shoah, the desire to encourage and support worldwide scholarly research on the Shoah and related topics, Yad Vashem established the International Institute for Holocaust Research in 1993. The Institute is active in the development and coordination of International research; the planning and undertaking of scholarly projects; the organization of symposia, conferences, and seminars; the fostering of cooperative projects among research institutions; financial and academic support for scholars and students of the Shoah; offering MA, PhD and postdoctoral fellowships; and publishing academic research, documentation, conference anthologies, diaries, memoirs, and albums about the Shoah.

The Wiener Library has been collecting material related to the Holocaust, its causes and legacies since 1933. Its holdings contain approximately 65,000 books and pamphlets, 2,000 document collections, over 17,000 photographs, and over 3,000 titles of periodicals, as well as audio-visual testimonies, press cuttings, posters and some objects.

The Institute was founded in Vilna, Poland (today Vilnius in Lithuania) in 1925 an relocated to New York City in 1940. Its mission is to preserve, study and teach the cultural history of Jewish life throughout Eastern Europe, Germany and Russia. Its educational and public outreach programs concentrate on all aspects of this 1000-year history and its continuing influence in America. YIVO’s archival collections and library constitute the single greatest resource for such study in the world, including approximately 24 million letters, manuscripts, photographs, films, sound recordings, art works, and artifacts; as well as the largest collection of Yiddish-language materials in the world.

The Leo Baeck Institute is a research library and archive that contains the most significant collection of source material relating to the history of German-speaking Jewry, from its origins to its tragic destruction by the Nazis and continuing to the present day. Founded in 1955, the LBI was named for the rabbi who was the last leader of the Jewish community in Germany under the Nazis. Rabbi Leo Baeck survived the concentration camp of Theresienstadt to become the first president of the Institute. The Institute was set up with offices in New York, London (see http://www.leobaeck.co.uk/) and Jerusalem (http://en.leobaeck.org/), with New York the site of the LBI library and archives. Since the opening of the Jewish Museum Berlin, LBI NY also maintains a branch of its archives there (see http://www.jmberlin.de/main/EN/03-Collection-and-Research/02-Read_and_Research/02-leobaeck.php).

Simon Dubnow Insitute for Jewish History and Culture at Leipzig University

The Simon Dubnow Institute for Jewish History and Culture at Leipzig University, named after the Russian-Jewish historian Simon Dubnow (1860-1941), was established in 1995 on the basis of a resolution passed by the state parliament of Saxony. It is associated with Leipzig University through a formal agreement for cooperation.
The Institute's work centers on research on the life-worlds (Lebenswelten) of the Jews, primarily in Central, East Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe, investigating in particular the mutual relations between the Jews in Eastern and Western Europe and in the context of their non-Jewish environment. The temporal frame is from the medieval period down to the present. Contrasted with the situation in Western Europe, the areas focused on are largely zones of transition between Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Islam. Currently, the main focus of research is on the period from the late 18th century to the beginning of the Second World War. Jewish history is viewed from a transnational, pluralistic perspective, as a kind of seismograph for shifts and tremors in the broader terrain of historical developments.
In terms of the historical sciences, work at the Institute revolves around three nodes of inquiry: (a) political and diplomatic history, based on new methodological approaches, (b) the history of migration and science, because migratory dynamics and innovation are closely intertwined, and (c) the classic canon of intellectual history and the history of ideas.
Special stress is placed on cooperative research at national and international levels. The Institute maintains close links with numerous scholarly centers in a number of countries, including Israel, the United States, Great Britain, Poland, France, Austria and Germany. Along with a central emphasis on research, the Institute also hosts guest scholars from Germany and abroad, guides doctoral students, arranges international conferences and smaller scholarly discussions, provides an array of courses for students at Leipzig University, and connects the academic research to a broader public.